Kherson

Kherson
Kherson; Херсон
	St. Catherine's Cathedral, 1780s
	; Coat of arms
	; Coat of arms
	Kherson Location of Kherson
	Coordinates: 46°38′0″N 32°35′0″E / 46.633333°N 32.583333°ECoordinates: 46°38′0″N 32°35′0″E / 46.633333°N 32.583333°E
Country; Oblast; Municipality; City Rayons	Ukraine; Kherson Oblast; Kherson City; Dneprovski rayon; Suvorovski rayon; Komsomolski rayon
Founded	June 18, 1778
	Government
- Mayor	Volodymyr Saldo
	Area
- Total	135.7 km2 (52.4 sq mi)
	Population (2007)
- Total	358,000
- Density	2,638.2/km2 (6,832.8/sq mi)
Postal code	73000
Area code(s)	+380 552
Sister cities	Rzeszów
Website	www.city.kherson.ua

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For the Greek colony, see Cherson.

Kherson (Ukrainian and Russian: Херсон) is a city in southern Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Kherson Oblast (province), and is designated as its own separate raion (district) within the oblast. Kherson is an important port on the Black Sea and Dnieper River, and the home of a major ship-building industry. The current estimated population is 329,000 (as of 2007).

[edit] History

Until 1774, the region belonged to the Crimean Khanate. Kherson was founded in 1778 by Grigori Aleksandrovich Potemkin, on the orders of Catherine the Great. The city was built under the supervision of General Ivan Gannibal on the site of a small fortress called Aleksanderschanz. The name Kherson is a contraction of Chersonesos, an ancient Greek colony founded approximately 2500 years ago in the southwestern part of Crimea. One of the first buildings in the Kherson Fort was the Church of St. Catherine where Potemkin was eventually buried. The last tarpan was caught near Kherson in 1866.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Demographics

As of Ukrainian National Census (2001), the ethnic groups living within Kherson are:

Ukrainians - 76.6%
Russians - 20.0%
Other - 3.4%

[edit] Population

Year	Population
1790	24,000
1926	58,000
1939	97,000
1959	158,000
1981	361,000
2004	354,000
2007	329,000

[edit] Administrative divisions

There are three city raions. Two of them still carry mark of a colonial city of Russia.

Dnipro Raion, named after Dnieper river.
Komsomol Raion, named after the Russian Communist youth organization, Komsomol.
Suvorov Raion, named after the Russian General Suvorov.

[edit] Transport

Kherson has railroad connections to Kiev and to Lvov.

[edit] Education

Kherson state agrarian university
Kherson state university
Kherson national technical university
International University of Business and Law

[edit] Main sights

Kherson synagogue

The Church of St. Catherine was built in the 1780s, supposedly to Ivan Starov's designs, and contains the tomb of Prince Potemkin.
Kherson TV Tower — is a famous construction located in the city.
Adziogol Lighthouse, hyperboloid structure designed by V.G.Shukhov, 1911

[edit] Famous people

Moshe Sharett

Georgy Arbatov (1923–2010), political scientist.^[1]
Sergei Bondarchuk, Soviet, Ukrainian-born film director, screenwriter, and actor.
Abram Petrovich Gannibal, founder of the city
Yefim Golïshev (1897–1970) Painter and composer associated with the Dada movement in Berlin.
Nikolai Grinko, Ukrainian Soviet-era film actor
John Howard (died in Kherson in 1790)
Mircea Ionescu-Quintus, a Romanian politician, writer, and jurist
Evgeny Kucherevsky, Ukrainian football coach of Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk (died 2006)
Larisa Latynina, a Soviet gymnast who was the first female athlete to win nine Olympic gold medals
Tatiana Lysenko, a Soviet and Ukrainian gymnast who won the gold medal on the balance beam at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona.
Grigory Potyomkin, founder of the city
Salomon Rosenblum, later known as Lieutenant Sidney Reilly, a secret agent and international adventurer and playboy who was at one time employed by the British Secret Intelligence Service. He is reputed to be the real inspiration for Ian Fleming's spy character, James Bond.
Moshe Sharett, the second Prime Minister of Israel (1953–1955)
Sergei Stanishev, Ex-Prime Minister of Bulgaria
Alexander Suvorov, founder of the city
Lev Davidovitch Bronstein, Leon Trotsky, Bolshevik revolutionary and Marxist theorist was born in Kherson in 1879.
Mikhail Yemtsev, science fiction writer